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Lunar: The Silver Star
Lunar: The Silver Star is the first game of Lunar series. It developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex for the Sega Mega-CD console. Originally released in Japan on June 16, 1992 to critical acclaim, the game was translated and released in English by Working Designs the following year. Designed as a "different kind of RPG",Lunar: The Silver Star made use of the up-and-coming disc format by featuring CD-quality audio, video playback, and voice acting to narrate a fantasy story set in a magical world. As the number one selling Mega-CD title in Japan, the game sold nearly as many copies as the system itself, and remains the second highest-selling Mega-CD title of all time. The first game in the Lunar series, it set the standard for other follow-up titles, and was followed by a direct sequel, Lunar: Eternal Blue in 1994. Since the game's original release, two enhanced remakes have been produced for various systems: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, the remake version in 1996 and Lunar Legend ''in 2002. '''Plot and Settings' The game takes place in the fantasy land of Lunar, a small habitable world orbiting the massive, barren Blue Star, forming a loose parallel between the game's world and the Earth and its moon. Centuries before the start of the game, the Blue Star was rendered unlivable by years of war and reckless use of magic. The powerful and benevolent Goddess Althena relocated humanity to the Silver Star, the world of Lunar, and entrusted four dragons to safeguard the elements of the new world. From this point on, those who would use the power of the dragons to serve the goddess and protect the world were known as "Dragonmasters", and no such Dragonmaster was more revered than Dyne, a legendary hero who defended the goddess and succumbed to an unknown fate. The stories surrounding Dyne's exploits would form the life model for a young boy named Alex, the game's protagonist and central character, who also aspires to become a Dragonmaster himself. Many of the locations of Lunar: The Silver Star were given a deliberate "northern" feel to present an environment that was cooler than the settings of most role-playing games, if only to allow the characters to wear more clothing. Many towns and locations were based on areas of Russia and Medieval Europe. The Characters *Alex Noah *Nall *Luna Noah *Nash Rumack *Mia Ausa * Kyle *Jessica de Alkirk *Ramus *Tempest *Fresca *Myght *Quark *Dyne *Mel de Alkirk *Lemia Ausa *Ghaleon *Xenobia *Royce *Phacia *Taben Story Much of the plot of Lunar: The Silver Star was written by novelist Kei Shigema, and involves a world of high fantasy and magic with emphasis on folklore and legend. The game begins in the small mountain town of Burg, where a young Alex frequently visits the monument to the fallen hero Dyne, his idol. At the behest of Ramus, eager son of the town mayor, Alex embarks on his first real adventure with his friends Nall and Luna to the mysterious Dragon's Cave in search of a valuable diamond. Making their way through the cavern, the meets Quark, an aged dragon who senses great potential in Alex, and urges him to complete the trials of other dragons to become the next Dragonmaster, champion of the Goddess Althena, and protector of the world. Quark shows an interest in Luna as well, remarking that she has a familiar aura about her. Obtaining the diamond from Quark, Ramus finds he cannot sell it in Burg, and must travel to the major trade city of Meribia to claim his fortune. The group then makes their way to Saith, a small port town to the south, where Luna leaves the group to stay with Alex's family. Across the ocean, Alex, Nall, and Ramus enter Meribia, where they meet one of the legendary Four Heroes, Mel. Attempting to sell his diamond, Ramus is swindled by a jewel dealer who flees into the sewers. After reclaiming it, Ramus slyly bargains the owner's life for his entire shop, and leaves the group to pursue his dream of becoming rich. Alex and Nash depart for the magic city of Vane where they meet Mia, daughter of the city's ruler and Nash's love interest, who informs them of Ghaleon, head of the magic guild and former great hero who fought with Dyne years ago. Seemingly intrigued by Alex's quest, Ghaleon sends Alex on a mission to investigate the appearance of a false Dragonmaster in a faraway town. Upon arrival, Alex meets Jessica, daughter of Mel and aspiring priestess, who helps him locate the imposter before returning to Vane. Pleased with his success, Ghaleon accompanies Alex back to his hometown to meet Quark and discuss Alex's future, when he suddenly attacks and kills Quark in a fit of rage. Citing the loss of his friend Dyne, who died protecting the Goddess, Ghaleon swears revenge on both her and her dragons and departs after kidnapping Luna. Distraught, Alex and Nall return to Meribia to find it under attack by a band of monsters under Ghaleon's command. Regrouping with Jessica, the group fights back a wave of invaders before witnessing Mel turn to stone from a dark spell of Xenobia, Ghaleon's top general. Wanting revenge, Jessica accompanies Alex to Vane, also under siege, and assists Nash and Mia with a similar invasion before they too join the group. Realizing they must make Alex a Dragonmaster to confront Ghaleon and save Luna, the team heads to the border town of Nanza to enlist Kyle, Jessica's boyfriend, in letting them cross into foreign land. After traveling to a town of inventors, the group obtains a floating device that leads them to the lair of the Red Dragon, who is destroyed by Ghaleon just before they arrive. The dragon grants Alex her power before disappearing, and the group departs for the Blue Dragon's cave behind a musical town. Again, the dragon is defeated before their arrival, and the team must travel to the distant and barren Frontier to seek the final trial. Meeting the black dragon, it attacks the team in a mad rage induced by Ghaleon, who defeat it in defense. With the final dragon's blessing, Alex and his companions make their way to the fabled Goddess Tower to face the final trial, where Alex finally becomes Dragon Master, Nall learns he is in fact a juvenile dragon, and Luna is revealed to be a reincarnation of the Goddess Althena. Making their way to Ghaleon's mobile fortress, The Grindery, the team is attacked by a brainwashed Luna and retreats to a nearby town to recover. Laike appears after the team recuperates and tells them that he is in fact Dyne, and that Alex must defeat Ghaleon to save the world and Luna. Making their way back to Grindery, the team forces their way inside, making their way into the fortress's inter sanctum where they defeat Xenobia and face Ghaleon, who transforms into a more powerful form before being destroyed by Alex. Confronting an insane Luna, Alex makes his way to her alone, braving her lightning bolts while playing a song on his harp which sparks her memories. Coming to her senses, she re-unites with the group as they leave the tower, with peace restored. Development Lunar: The Silver Star was developed by Game Arts in an attempt to create a role-playing game that would both primarily focus on animation and storytelling. The team turned to scenario writer and novelist Kei Shigema to craft a story that would break away from "hum-drum 'model'" games that "had stories, but had no story-telling".Using the Mega-CD's video playback capabilities, animator and artist Toshiyuki Kubooka oversaw the planning of several video sequences that would be coupled with voice-overs to better tell the story of the Lunar world. Settling on an overall fantasy approach as opposed to the popular role-playing alternative of science fiction, the team wanted to explore the mythos and history of a fictional world that would gradually reveal itself to the player over time. Having mostly developed side-scrollers and scrolling shooters for the Mega Drive and PC Engine, Game Arts formed its subsidiary company, Studio Alex, named for the main character of this title, to oversee most of the game's development. Due to time restraints, nearly one-third of the Lunar project was scrapped by the game's release. Lunar's English version was handled by , a small California-based publisher who had previously localized smaller games for the TurboGrafx-16 and TurboDuo. Their biggest project yet, the team, headed by company vice president and chief writer Victor Ireland, took to the project seriously, often collaborating with the original Japanese team themselves. New gameplay elements were often added at Ireland's request, including new sequences such as playing Alex's harp to awaken Luna near the end of the game. Working Designs also put extra effort into the game's packaging, giving the instruction booklet embossed lettering, and having seven separate stamps, each with different artwork, produced for the front of the game discs to increase collection value. The English script was nearly four megabytes in size, yet Working Designs completed the translation in only eight weeks after a marathon programming session. During translation, the developers did find time to inject some of their own humour in to the game's text, dropping in sentences such as Have you ever tried swimming in lemon jello?, and numerous light-hearted pop culture references not seen in the original version, including allusions to American commercials, celebrities, colloquialisms, products, and role-playing game clichés. Audio The music for Lunar: The Silver Star was composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, Hiroshi Fujioka, Isao Mizoguchi, and Yoshiaki Kubodera, who utilized the Mega-CD's sound capabilities to create CD-quality redbook audio. The game features the opening theme "Lunar", performed by Mayumi Sudou in the original Japanese version. The English version, "Fighting Through the Darkness", is a slightly arranged piece performed by vocalist Shiya Almeda which features new lyrics by Victor Ireland, who intended the song to sound less "lovey-dovie" with a greater "sense of urgency". The original ending theme, "Sensitive Dream", was performed by Kikuko Inoue, and was featured in the game's television commercial in Japan. This song was absent from the North American version entirely, and was replaced by an instrumental piece. On April 22, 1992, the Lunar: The Silver Star Original Soundtrack was released exclusively in Japan by Toshiba-EMI Records, two months before the actual release of the game. The album features full versions of the Japanese opening and ending themes, as well as karaoke arrangements. Most of the game's background themes are presented as multi-song medleys rather than separate tracks. Although an official North American version was never released, many of the songs present on the album were featured as special arrangements on the bonus soundtrack found in the Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete collector's edition, including the English opening theme. Lunar: The Silver Star Story Original Soundtrack tracklist Voice Both the Japanese and English adaptations of Lunar: The Silver Star contain roughly fifteen minutes of spoken dialogue from a number of prominent voice actors. Though the game has a number of main and supporting characters, only five are actually voiced during specific story sequences. The Japanese version features Kikuko Inoue as both Alex and Luna, Rei Sakuma as Nall, Kōichi Kitamura as the white dragon Quark, and Rokurō Naya as Ghaleon. The English version comprised mostly new talent and associates of Working Designs' staff, such as a young Ashley Parker Angel as Alex, Rhonda Gibson as Luna, Jackie Powers as Nall, Hal Delahousse as Quark, and John Truitt as Ghaleon. While the entire Japanese cast was replaced for the game's remake on the PlayStation, all of the original English cast would return to reprise their roles. Reception Lunar: The Silver Star was well received in Japan, selling an estimated 100,000 copies, its entire production run, in its first year after release, nearly as much as the Mega CD itself. It is considered the Mega-CD's first hit game, which Sega credits solely for pushing the system's sales in that region. The game remains the best-selling Mega CD title of all time in Japan, and second highest selling worldwide behind Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Readers of Japanese magazine Megadrive Beep voted it the number one Mega Drive role-playing game for seventeen straight months before being trumped by Shining Force II. The English version released the following year met with a similar response, with Skid of GameFan magazine calling it "far and away the best RPG I have ever played in English", praising the game's graphics, sound, and story as "well conceived and executed". The magazine's editors would later name it as the greatest role-playing game of 1993.GamePro similarly reviewed it as "not just the best Sega CD RPG ever, but one of the best on any Sega system", giving particular merit to the game's translation. Game Players described it as a "solid RPG, and well worth your time" but found fault in the game's small character graphics that "look like every other RPG" and the virtually non-existent replay value. Electronic Gaming Monthly granted the game an average 7.6 or "worthy" rating, commending the game's background music but dismissing its battle sequences as "dull".In 2006, Lunar ranked 113th in EGM and 1UP.com's "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time", celebrating the two-hundred games that were considered the best during their original release.